GOP congressmen sue over new Pennsylvania district map

The Democratic-controlled court stated the gerrymandered districts drawn by Republicans in 2011 unconstitutionally put partisan interests above such criteria as keeping districts compact and respecting municipal and county boundaries.

A separate legal challenge to the new map by two senior Republican legislative leaders is now awaiting action by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Pennsylvania's state House Republican majority leader, Dave Reed, now lives in the same district as U.S. Rep. Glenn Thompson, a fellow Republican, rather than the district of the man he had hoped to succeed, retiring Republican U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster. They believe they have a stronger case now that they court redrew the maps.

Elections that have no choices don't attract as many voters as elections that do.

Ed Natali, chairman of the Butler County Republican Committee, said Monday that he thought the court's decision and the new map were an unfair political tactic in reaction to Republicans winning the presidency and 13 of 18 House seats for the state.

It may even turn out that the Pennsylvania court's handling of gerrymandering, based exclusively on the state constitution, will provide some guidance to the top federal court in how to handle two other gerrymandering cases that it is already hearing.

Republicans blasted the new map, and dozens of candidates were left reconsidering their futures.

The plaintiffs also included arguments that the court's actions violate the US Constitution's Elections Clause, which gives state legislatures authority over drawing congressional maps.

Now, the state has a Democratic governor and a Republican state legislature. The Republican legislature and Democratic governor were directed to agree on a new map.

For now, House and Senate Republican leaders appear to be keeping their attention on appealing to the US Supreme Court for a stay on the state court decision. In the end, the Supreme Court made sensible decisions that we need to live with, not further litigate. The New York Times' Nate Cohn tweeted that "Democrats get everything they want", while Cook Political Report's Dave Wasserman labeled it "Democrats' dream come true".

That changed last month, with the state court's ruling on a case brought previous year by a group of registered Democrats from around the state who claimed the Republicans in control had effectively practiced a form of "viewpoint discrimination" against them. "As of now, I am closely reviewing the entire process that led to this major change to verify that it was in accordance with the Constitution that I swore to uphold".

The Bureau has developed a plan for temporarily administering two sets of precincts for the former 18th Congressional District to ensure that the four counties involved in the upcoming special election for that district are not adversely impacted.

The redrawn district absorbs part of the heavily Democratic Philadelphia-based district of Rep.

Concurrently, Pennsylvania Republicans today filed suit in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, naming as defendants Robert Torres, Pennsylvania's Secretary of State, and Jonathan Marks, a state elections officer-both are responsible for implementing the court's map before the 2018 primaries and midterms.

"I am deeply concerned for the people of the 12th District I currently represent, including the hundreds of constituents for whom my office is currently helping to resolve matters with the government who may now have to restart their cases with a new member of Congress", Rothfus said. Unless something changes this year, they might force the Supreme Court to intervene to stop a blatant abuse of voters' rights.